A Minnesota couple who operates a video production company have filed a pre-enforcement challenge over concerns that state law mandates them to create films in support of same-sex “marriage” if they also produce videos that reflect their Christian beliefs about marriage.

Carl and Angel Larsen run the Telescope Media Group, which has produced videos for a number of prominent evangelical ministries. The couple, being concerned about the societal drift from God’s plan for marriage, would like to tell stories with their filmmaking skills to “impact religious, social, and cultural views about marriage by creating compelling stories celebrating God’s design for the institution.”

Their desired films will capture actual footage of weddings and will be used both as keepsakes for the couples and to reach global audiences.

A gay writer who is planning to marry his partner says that it is no longer acceptable to shame people of faith by labeling them “homophobic” just because they do not support same-sex marriage.

“It is no longer okay – indeed, it never was – to write cutesy articles shaming religious people as homophobic for simply being one of the many millions of Americans in 2016 who attend a religious congregation that does not support same-sex marriage. That is not a good move for activism or journalism,” wrote Brandon Ambrosino in a December 1st oped published by the Washington Post.

Technocracy News posted an article over at The Sun with this warning: “While the outcome of killing an ISIS terrorist is welcome, the unleashing of killer robots to do it is not. This exacerbates the robot arms race between the U.S., China and Russia and ultimately cannot be good for the citizens of these nations. The next world war will be fought by Technocrats with mechanized militaries, putting civilian populations at extreme risk.”

The Sun reporter Jon Lockett writes:

Photo credit: Defense Update

Footage shows troops close in on the secret compound sheltering Rustan Aselderov – known as Abu Muhammad – and four of his brutal henchmen at the weekend.

Soldiers are seen unloading their weapons on the building before launching two explosive devices inside.

A small weaponised robotic vehicle is then seen moving in to finish the job.

The robot’s mounted machine gun blasts holes through the side of the property as soldiers secure the area.

Billy Graham’s grandson, Tullian Tchividjian, is being called to step away from all forms of ministry as several women have come forward to tell their side of the story surrounding his affairs, including his former mistress who says that Tchividjian was only forced to resign after their sexual relationship had been caught on the church server.

But despite the revelations, Tchividjian’s publisher, David C. Cook, lead by Cris Doornbos, says that they are committed to publishing his new book, tentatively on the subject of grace.

“Our status with him (Tchividjian) hasn’t changed,” Chief Advancement Officer Tim McDonald recently told the Christian Post. “We’re committed to him and his family as a publisher and will continue to be so.”

But what about all the people who work for party and event planners that won’t receive a paycheck because Sunshine Sachs has chosen to sulk instead of celebrating Christ– (oops!) Holidaymas? Breitbart has the story:

Hollywood publicity powerhouse Sunshine Sachs has cancelled its glitzy, star-studded annual holiday celebrations in solidarity with those whom its chief executive says are people who feel targeted by Donald Trump.

“We’ve been talking a lot about how to protect the things we care about, post-election,” Sunshine Sachs CEO Shawn Sachs told industry outlet TheWrap on Tuesday.

“I felt the morning after was nothing compared to how I felt talking to people in this office, those who felt their citizenship — in a matter of moments — was gone or had been lessened,” Sachs said of the election. “Being the diverse workplace we are, many of us felt under assault.”

Proponents of biblical marriage are sharply criticizing the nation’s largest jewelry store chain for creating a video advertisement that prominently features two lesbians on their “wedding” day.

Zales is a popular jewelry company headquartered in Texas. According to a 2012 report from “National Jeweler,” Zales’s parent company Zale Corp is the largest jewelry retail chain in North America, grossing $1.7 billion in annual sales.

Amid a rowdy recount push in battleground states, anti-Donald Trump forces are escalating efforts to invalidate his election on another front: the Electoral College.

The people who technically choose the next president will gather on Dec. 19 to, presumably, make the results of the Nov. 8 presidential election official. Trump won 306 electoral votes in the election, well above the 270 needed to defeat Hillary Clinton and claim the White House.

But even as Clinton herself has conceded and joined President Obama in urging a smooth transition of power, a group of electors from Colorado and Washington known as the “Hamilton Electors” is trying to persuade other electors to unite behind a Republican alternative to Trump.

On Monday, they peeled off one Republican. Chris Suprun, from Texas, said he won’t cast one of his state’s 38 electoral votes for Trump because “I am here to elect a president, not a king.”

Like President-elect Donald Trump, a prominent Baptist minister in Texas who backed Trump’s campaign efforts says that despite his opposition, same-sex “marriage” is “settled law,” and Christians should move on to another issue, such as abortion.

Robert Jeffress, who leads First Baptist Church in Dallas, spoke last week with Good Morning Texas, which noted that Jeffress’ longstanding fight against the issue is now “water under the bridge.”

“This is not going to be re-litigated by the Supreme Court. That is the law of the land. I wish it were different, but it’s not different,” he said emphatically.

An Ohio bill known as the “Pastor Protection Act” has cleared a state House committee, but it is not certain whether lawmakers have enough time to pass the legislation this year.

H.B. 286, presented by Rep. Nino Vitale, R-Urbana, protects pastors from punishment in instances when they decline to officiate a wedding that is unbiblical or disallow their church buildings from being used for such ceremonies.

“No ordained or licensed minister … or religious society … is required to solemnize a marriage that does not conform to the ordained or licensed minister’s or religious society’s sincerely held religious beliefs,” it reads in part. “No religious society is required to allow any building or property of the religious society to be used to host a marriage ceremony for a marriage that does not conform to the religious society’s sincerely held religious beliefs.”

Reggie Littlejohn, president of the human rights advocacy group Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, has written an open letter to President-elect Donald Trump urging him to investigate the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) for what she said is its complicity in Communist China’s coercive population control policies, including forced abortion.

“We at Women’s Rights Without Frontiers look forward to working with you to advance women’s rights all over the world,” Littlejohn said in the Dec. 1 letter. “To that end, we respectfully request that you immediately investigate International Planned Parenthood.”

“If they are found to be complicit with coercive population control in China – as we believe they will be — we request that you defund them,” Littlejohn wrote.

Global land temperatures have plummeted by one degree Celsius since the middle of this year – the biggest and steepest fall on record.

But the news has been greeted with an eerie silence by the world’s alarmist community. You’d almost imagine that when temperatures shoot up it’s catastrophic climate change which requires dramatic headlines across the mainstream media and demands for urgent action. But that when they fall even more precipitously it’s just a case of “nothing to see here”.

In an apostolic letter issued Nov. 21, Pope Francis said he was granting “all priests, in virtue of their ministry, the faculty to absolve those who have committed the sin of procured abortion.” In so doing, the pope expanded indefinitely an authorization he had given priests worldwide during the just-concluded Jubilee of Mercy.

A self-described evangelist, author and poet who rose to celebrity status for his hip-hop-styled poetic messages, model-like photographs and numerous selfies has had his ministerial credentials revoked after confessing to sexual indiscretions. The admission occurred as a number of women have recently come forward citing that both promises of marriage and spiritual abuse played a role in them being lured into sexual sin.
Clayton Jennings, who had been in the midst of promoting Tim Tebow’s new book “Shaken,” released a poetic confession online on Nov. 13, which as of press time has obtained over 190,000 views.
“I never claimed to be perfect and I never said I was sinless. Presenting you with a fake facade of greatness is never why I got in this,” he says in the video. “I want you to know this: I’ve sinned—a lot.”

“I could tell you stories of my past sin, but I wouldn’t know when to stop. I had sex before marriage and I broke a lot of hearts. And that’s not even the worst part. Sometimes it was during seasons of ministry,” Jennings admits. “I led some girls on, and there were text messages of sex and sin.”

Wildfires in and around the east Tennessee resort area of Gatlinburg have destroyed the facilities of at least one Southern Baptist church, claimed buildings at two other churches and prompted local believers to launch relief ministries.

The reported 14 blazes near Gatlinburg Nov. 29 were among a series of wildfires across the southeast this fall that have led Southern Baptist Disaster Relief units to deploy in Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia.

The following letter was sent worldwide today, Nov. 28, to all 1,600 Calvary Chapel Pastors by the Calvary Chapel Association.

November 28, 2016

Calvary Chapel Pastors,

Pastor Chuck Smith chose a group of men to lead the Calvary Chapel movement after his passing. The Calvary Chapel Association Council was a plan he reiterated on numerous occasions. A Council provides checks and balances, and a collective wisdom to help steer us in the right direction.

The CCA Council consists of men from across the country who are committed to the core values that have made us Calvary Chapel. Like many of you, we have given our lives to build Calvary Chapel churches. What makes the 1700 churches “Calvary Chapel” are the values Pastor Chuck instilled in us – our doctrine and philosophy of ministry. The principles we were taught and the transformative power of God’s Spirit have proven to be more than sufficient. The CCA Council’s primary goal is to maintain what has been our Calvary Chapel identity for fifty years, while seeking the Holy Spirit for fresh power and wisdom to advance God’s Kingdom.

Although black Americans make up 13.3% of the U.S. population, they comprised 35% of the total abortions “reported” – 128,682 babies killed — in 2013, according to the latest Abortion Surveillance report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

That number, 128,682 black abortions, comes from only 29 reporting areas, according to the CDC. It does not include black abortions from the following states: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Those states “did not report, did not report by race/ethnicity, or did not meet reporting standards,” said the CDC in Table 12 of its report. The header for Table 12 reads, “Reported abortions, by known race/ethnicity of women who obtained an abortion and reporting area of occurrence — selected reporting areas, United States, 2013.”

Hillary Clinton’s campaign will participate in vote recounts of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan if they take place, drawing a rebuke from Donald Trump’s team that the Democrat is being a “sore loser” and part of a “ridiculous” effort.

If Green Party candidate Jill Stein initiates recounts in those states as she intends, the Clinton campaign “will participate in order to ensure the process proceeds in a manner that is fair to all sides,” Clinton campaign lawyer Marc Elias said Saturday in a post on the blogging website Medium.com. He added that he doesn’t expect the action to overturn Trumps election.

Trump focused on Stein, not Clinton, in a response. “The people have spoken and the election is over, and as Hillary Clinton herself said on election night, in addition to her conceding by congratulating me, ‘We must accept this result and then look to the future,”’ he said in a statement.

Kellyanne Conway, who was Trump’s campaign manager and is now a senior adviser, was less conciliatory. “What a pack of sore losers,” she said in a statement. “After asking Mr. Trump and his team a million times on the trail, ‘Will HE accept the election results?’ it turns out Team Hillary and their new BFF Jill Stein can’t accept reality.”

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has released its annual “abortion surveillance” report, showing that abortion rates are falling and are at their lowest in decades, but with at least 600,000 babies still losing their lives each year.

“A total of 664,435 abortions were reported to CDC for 2013,” the organization wrote, outlining the latest year on record.

The figure equates to 200 abortions for every 1,000 live births, and is down five percent from 2012, when 699,202 abortions were reported. It is also half of the rate in 1980 and the lowest since 1971, prior to the passing of Roe v. Wade.

According to Catholic News Agency the veneration of Mary, the mother of the Lord Jesus, continues to grow. The apostate Roman Catholic Church teaches that Mary, who is in heaven, acts as a mediator for the Church. Scripture teaches otherwise. According to Hebrews 5:5, 6 the only One who acts as a mediator between man and God is Jesus Christ who alone is the high priest. We learn in Hebrews 9:14-15, 10-14 that the blood of Jesus is the only acceptable sacrifice for the sins of mankind. 1 Timothy 2:5–6 confirms this: “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.”

On Tuesday the Vatican announced the themes for the next three World Youth Day encounters, which are focused on Mary and form the basis of a spiritual journey culminating in the next global encounter in Panama in 2019.

A Nov. 22 Vatican communique revealed that the themes for 2017 and 2018 diocesan-level events as well as the international gathering in 2019 will all be taken from Chapter 1 of the Gospel of Luke, centering on Mary in the scene of the Annunciation and her Magnificat, spoken after her cousin Elizabeth’s declaration that “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”

Christian Post, a site we do not recommend, has the latest on disgraced pastor Tullian Tchividjian. Last year we reported that after admitting to an adulterous relationship he was asked to resign from his pulpit at Coral Ridge Presbyterian in South Florida. Shortly thereafter, Tchividjian was hired by Willow Creek Presbyterian as Director of Ministry Development. We then reported that he was immediately fired from that job when affair #2 came to light six months later. We also let our readers know that in August of this year Tchividjian remarried. CP has provided photos of the couple’s wedding celebration along with an excerpt from the sermon he gave.

Following are biblical qualifications for a pastor:

For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. – Titus 1:7-8

Tullian Tchividjian, the Rev. Billy Graham’s grandson who lost his church and wife last summer to an adultery scandal, has re-emerged with a new wife and a redeeming message about God’s “magnificent intervention.”

In the sermon that also appeared to quietly address his last misstep, Tchividjian recalled a time when he got caught cutting school by his psychologist father as a teenager.

Tchividjian’s remarriage was first confirmed in a Facebook post on Saturday by his new wife, Stacie, as she highlighted a sermon he delivered at the non-denominational Spring Hills Community Church in Santa Rosa, California.”What an honor it was to be invited to Spring Hills Community Church and sincerely welcomed by such a loving staff and congregation! Our time in Santa Rosa was too short, but SO wonderful … Tullian Tchividjian (my amazing Hubby!) delivered an authentic, powerful message,” she wrote in part.While he did not comment on his remarriage, Tchividjian highlighted the same sermon on his Facebook page on Saturday about an hour after his new wife posted it.”Very grateful to our friends at Spring Hills Community Church for the invitation to come and speak a few weeks ago,” Tchividjian wrote of the Oct. 31, sermon.